Japan Press Weekly

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2013 February 6 - 12 [US FORCES]

US jet fighter’s sonic boom breaks window glass of a house

In protest against the breaking of the window glass in a local house caused by a sonic boom from a U.S. military jet, Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture on February 6 sent a petition to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, the U.S. Forces Japan, and the Japanese government demanding a halt to the U.S. flight training.

The fighter plane flew over the city shortly after noon on January 15. The sonic boom hit the city and caused the breakage of window glass in a house. The noise was measured at 88.6 dB.

The glass-rattling roar heard in local schools was so intense that teachers of a nursery school said they felt a shock wave as if a plane crashed, and one of their kids asked them if the school building was being knocked down, according to the city investigation.

The USFJ admits that one of its airplanes was flying overhead at that time.

The petition demands the immediate termination of flight training exercises in order to secure residents’ safety and ease their anxieties.